Welfare consideration must span the entire life cycle of farm animals from breeding to slaughter - gaps at any stage undermine overall standards.
Farm animal welfare certification and regulation has historically been segmented - separate frameworks for farm welfare, transport welfare and slaughter welfare applied to the same animals at different life stages. This fragmentation allows welfare failures in poorly regulated phases to undermine high standards elsewhere. A broiler chicken raised to the highest welfare standard on farm may experience severe suffering during transport and slaughter if those phases lack equivalent oversight. Breeding animals - the sows producing piglets for welfare-certified farms, the broiler breeders living with chronic hunger - may not be covered by the certification their offspring receive. Whole-life welfare thinking requires evaluating and improving welfare at every phase, closing the gaps between well-regulated and poorly-regulated segments of each animal's life.